For Emma trying to explain how the magic had 'felt' was impossible, she had no context for explanation and kept falling back on clichés. Regina's best attempts to coax accuracy were only getting both of them more frustrated. It was like they had the rare and exact chemistry that would allow for nothing to be accomplished.
"I told you I don't know! It was just…she just couldn't take it out, it was stuck. I don't know what it's supposed to feel like to have your heart ripped out."
Regina had the fingers of her right hand pressed up against her temple and a look of annoyance on her face, she had offered Emma a drink before sitting down to talk in the kitchen but she hadn't taken anything. It probably had to do with a fear of being poisoned but both thought it better not to bring that up by name.
"Was there a feeling of darkness or pressure and then warmth or was it warm all the way through?"
"Darkness?"
"Discomfort?"
"Well, she had her hand in my chest. So, yeah, little uncomfortable."
"Joking about this is a waste of my time, you have to start thinking abstractly. Magic isn't like switching on a light switch its about control and change and power."
"Getting a little dark side on me."
"You came to me for me for my perspective."
Emma couldn't argue with that, not that she'd been left much of a choice; Regina sighed. She had opted to remain standing as she often did but Emma sat at the kitchen island looking like she didn't know what was expected of her.
"Okay, what about with David, what happened then?"
"I was about to get hurt and I don't know, my instincts took over."
Whatever Emma's magic was it remained almost entirely reflexive, given Emma's history of denial that didn't surprise her much but telling her all she had to do was believe didn't seem like much of an answer. It became suddenly apparent to her that Emma was smiling about something and Regina thought for a mad moment that she'd somehow started believing and that everything would resolve itself but Emma's expression pointed in a different direction.
"Okay, so stick with me on this what if we try and recreate that? Maybe you could try and hurt me."
"Excuse me?"
There was a feeling of not entirely unpleasant surprise at the request.
"I mean not like, you know, stabbing or anything but if that's the only time that it's worked and you need to see me in action to know how to fix it…"
"I cannot believe you're actually suggesting this."
"Tell me about it."
Just the idea of inviting Regina to do damage to her seemed stupid and set her pride grumbling but she didn't actually have to get her she just had to think she was and anyway she knew her own physical limitations and that they were floating somewhere above Regina's. In a magic battle she might be bested but if it came to bare knuckles she could hold her own and she wanted to get this taken care of as quickly as possible. Not to mention if her power was going to freak out and hurt someone it wouldn't suck if it were Regina.
"That's ridiculous, I'm not going to hurt you."
"Oh, come on, like you've never wanted to punch me in the face."
"That's beside the point."
"I'm just trying not to 'waste your time'."
This was insane and at the same time it was her best definition of a nemesis asking to be hit in the face.
"What would you want me to do?"
She was doing her best to remain as grudging as possible.
"I don't know, shove me or something? I'm not really sure how much it will take for it to kick in."
If she was actually going to do this then she was going to do it correctly, she flattened the front of her shirt and walked around the island.
"Okay stand up."
With the point agreed to Emma's eyes had widened. The posibility of the impending harm gave her momentary second thoughts but she pushed out the chair and stood up to face Regina.
How do two grown women stand when one is expected to hurt the other?
Regina wore her common expression of serene wrath; she had done this dozens of times before in battle and with those who had no conception of the approaching pain. The closest she could come to recognizing how it felt facing Emma was the memory of facing Snow, being about to offer her the apple, knowing that pain was coming. This was different of course but in a way just as charged, while no fates hung in the balance Emma looked her right in the eye and drew on a force of feeling between the two of them. The volume of static rose in her head and then, without thinking, she slapped Emma across the face.
In a way she had known nothing would happen but it was apparent that Emma had not, she held a hand to the side of her face, mouth slightly agape in shock. The force of it had turned her head and thrown her hair over to the front-side of her shoulder, her eyes were wide as if she had not asked for it. Regina made sure her face betrayed no expression.
"That didn't work."
Emma's eyebrows furrowed to say that Regina's confirmation that she had, indeed, just been struck across the face was unnecessary.
"Any other bright ideas."
Her hand hurt more than she had expected, maybe she'd hit a bit too hard, Emma was rubbing her cheek.
"I don't know that I want to have any."
Great, so they'd been sitting there attempting polite conversation about magic for maybe forty-five minutes and all they'd accomplished was slapping Emma. She turned back to the kitchen counter as not to have to watch Emma nursing the side of her face, which was now bright red and probably swelling. There was a small itch of remorse; she wanted to figure out a polite way to tell Emma to lie if Henry asked about it. That was the last thing he needed.
"Look, I don't think that I'm going to be able to help you. I don't even have a firm grasp on magic in this world, if we were back in my world there might be something I could do but here we're out of luck."
Emma looked like she was thinking again, a fact that had a chance of causing further detriment to her health. Without her hand up to block the side of her face Regina could see a clear outline of her own hand.
"Cora said that love was weakness."
Regina remembered those words so clearly; even as Emma said them she thought she heard them in her mother's voice. Despite all of her trying with Henry she still had a hard time convincing herself that it wasn't true.
"And I just knew…I knew she was wrong and then she was, she couldn't take my heart."
Wouldn't that have been nice, to have been able to prove her mother wrong all those years ago and stopped her from taking a heart. Emma had now what she had always wanted and she wanted to understand it. To do so would require drastic action.
"I have one more thing we could try."
Pushing off the cold marble counter she turned to face Emma again.
"I can try and take your heart."
For the first time since they'd started talking Emma's confidence slipped, she had been determined to do what it took to resolve this issue and even, to a degree, make nice with Regina but recalling the feeling of Cora's hand in her chest- like some clammy living thing, made her hesitant.
"If that's what started these outbursts than it's the most probable way to get a reaction."
It was more difficult than she thought to look Emma in the eye, normally when she took out hearts she didn't really waste time convincing her victims first. The words felt dishonest. If it worked like the slap and she actually managed to take her heart out then the experience wouldn't be pleasant. Following that she wasn't even entirely sure she could put it back, that required strong magic of a persuasion that generally disagreed with her and having to go explain to someone who truly loved Emma how her heart had ended up separate from her body didn't seem like a good time. It would be better if Emma just disagreed outright.
"Yeah, okay."
Even as she said it she looked nervous, she swallowed and nodded a few times in the way she did when she was trying to convince herself.
"Let's do it."
She righted her shoulders again as if she was preparing herself for another blow to the face. Regina took a deep breath and finally looked her in the eye, it had been a good while since she'd removed a heart but having taken so many she wasn't worried about her technique. The curse required malice, which she had in abundance but beyond that fury and understanding. It required the knowledge of exactly what it is you were doing and all of the consequences thereof, to hold a human being in your hand. All of their complexities and potentials under your power; that was why crushing them was so unpleasant. You could feel every drop of life drain into oblivion.
Regina raised her hand and made to touch Emma's chest, for the sake of consideration she tried to move slow. For a second she was just touching her, fingertips on the center of her chest at the hard junction of her sternum. She could feel her heart beating through her thin t-shirt and then her hand passed through, as it had before, and her fingers brushed the muscle itself. The heart is only inches from everything that would wish to do it harm and for her the ribcage was no obstacle. Emma had drawn in a sudden breath of shocked but did not, now, look uncomfortable. Touching Emma's heart felt strange, it was not the normal sense of consuming. Of reaching through fog to grab something porcelain, instead it felt like sticking a limb into warm, deep water. Something lurked in the sea of her, a body of water particularly hard to navigate. Her heart, though solid, seemed almost to be made of smoke, getting her fingers around it took a try and as soon as she did warmth spread through her entire body.
"Regina."
Having someone talk while you have their heart in the palm of your hand is unsettling, even more so when they're looking into your eyes. Regina looked for a moment on Emma's face, closer than it ever had been, and did not realize that she was trying to get her to notice something.
"You're glowing."
She hadn't realized between the monumental effort of focus it was taking to keep her grip and Emma's proximity but looking down now a strange golden light emitted from around her arm. It was odd; she wasn't exactly the glowing type. Feeling the pulse of Emma's heart beneath her hand Regina suddenly understood what it was and the force of that realization made her lose her grip. She tugged her arm back to her side with no heart to speak of.
Both of them were breathing heavily, Emma was even a bit hunched over.
"That felt," Emma's sentence was interrupted by her ragged breathing, "different."
Regina turned away from her, back to the island trying to catch her breath.
"What was that?"
There was no answer.
"Regina, what was that?"
"Nothing."
She had regained enough of her strength to grab Regina's arm and turn her around.
"What was it?"
"Nothing."
"You're lying, I can tell. Tell me what that was. Why were you glowing?"
Whatever the answer was Regina was keeping it to herself.
"No, this is me. This isn't one of your little plots, this is my life. If you know something, if something bad could happen you have to tell me."
Her grip on Regina's arm tightened, she could feel her nails digging in through the fabric of her blazer.
"It's nothing dangerous. Now, I need you to leave and apologize to Henry for me but this isn't something I can help you with."
"What?"
"I'm telling you to leave my house, I don't have time for this."
"First you have to explain that to me."
Regina's jaw clenched and she jerked her arm away, "How dare you? I have to explain nothing to you, now leave my house."
For a few seconds Emma stood there, loathe to give up on getting what she wanted but knowing she was no longer in any temporary good graces that might have allowed them to cohabitate a single space. She grabbed her leather jacket from the back of the chair and left.
Hearing the door close Regina braced both hands on the marble counter and took a deep breath.
The front door to Gold's shop blew open as if it was fleeing from whatever was outside and when he saw how angry Regina looked he didn't blame it.
"What are you playing at?"
"I don't know why I invested all that money in a closed sign, obviously nobody looks at it."
"Don't try and act cute."
"I assure you, that's not one of my priorities."
Gold had been attending to private matters in the form of looking over paper work but Regina had no kindness to spare his personal life, she strode up to the counter.
"Trying to pawn her off on me so I have to deal with her when you know exactly what she is."
"I suspect you're referring to our sheriff and her little magic problem? You seemed like something of a better fit seeing I'm a bit allergic to true love."
"You think this is funny?"
Gold's expression changed from one of bemused annoyance to actual concern, he sensed that something had occurred of which he had no knowledge. He hated when that happened.
"I take it something happened?"
Regina realized suddenly how badly she had trapped herself, the assumption that Gold had sent Emma knowing what would happen had been false and now she was left to talk her way out without providing an explanation, a feat that with Rumplestiltskin, was impossible.
"And to get you this riled up no doubt it was something interesting. Did she beat you at something? More magic? No, this isn't a simple besting."
She really didn't like when he puzzled things out loud as he always seemed to know right when he'd hit the jackpot, she knew it must be something in her expression but for her best efforts she couldn't do any better at disguising her feelings.
"This is something deeper, did she read your mind, find out something about you rather left unknown? Or maybe…"
His tone of voice changed, it sounded like a wolf closing in on a rabbit.
"You found out something about yourself."
She felt herself doing whatever it was that let him know he was exactly right and watched his expression brighten.
"Oh my, well, I suppose when you're dealing with the result of true love even The Evil Queen isn't immune."
"Don't play dumb, you knew and I promise you're not going to use her to best me."
Gold considered this for a moment.
"What, you think this is payback for that business with Belle? Don't flatter yourself, I have things to worry about beyond petty past rivalries. Now why don't you go have a chat with your little crush?"
One of the display cases on the side of the shop exploded, littering the ground with glass; Regina turned and left, pacing over it. The crunching noise it made beneath the point of her heel wasn't enough to sate a fury that she realized had nothing to engulf now but her self.